The European Union said it held deep reservations over a vote by the US House of Representatives to impose tough new sanctions on Russia that may affect energy flows to Europe. EU commissioners, the EU executive’s top officials, “expressed their concerns notably because of the draft bill’s possible impact on EU energy independence,” the bloc said in a statement following talks in Brussels on the matter. The commission added that it remained “ready to act to protect European interests” if the concerns were not addressed by US lawmakers, repeating a threat made in May by EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.